Karate, Wonton, Chow Fun: The end of 'chop suey' fonts

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For years, the West has relied on so-called 'chop suey' fonts to communicate 'Asianness' in food packaging, posters and ad campaigns. But such fonts perpetuate problematic stereotypes.

Here's a thought experiment: Close your eyes and imagine the font you'd use to depict the word"Chinese."

and kung-fu movie posters. These"chop suey fonts," as American historian Paul Shaw calls them, have been a typographical shortcut for"Asianness" for decades.for a calligraphy-style printing type, later named Mandarin, in 1883. It is perhaps no surprise that this Eastern-inspired lettering emerged in the late 19th century, an era when Orientalism coursed feverishly through the West.

."Neither the food nor the fonts bear any real relation to true Chinese cuisine or calligraphy. But this has not prevented the proliferation of chop suey lettering and its close identification with Chinese culture outside of China."Type designers in the West have since cooked up many of their own versions of chop suey.

White politicians, meanwhile, have been using chop suey fonts to stoke xenophobia for over a century. In her book,"This is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot," Cooper Union professor Alicia Cheng draws attention to the"chopsticks font," as she calls it, used by San Francisco politician Dr. C. C. O'Donnell on a 1876 ballot, as he vowed to deport all Chinese immigrants if he was elected into office.

 

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Please use the correct (nonracist) term. This example is called brush font and it substitutes for Asian brush calligraphy. It is useful for Asians and is not racist, although uses of it might be. Leave it alone. Thank you.

Never trust your local dry cleaners. Never.

Hey

Just another way the media is trying to tear everyone apart and bring us down and divide us they just wanna keep stirring up hate

Nonsense!.

From the every-damn-thing-is-'racist' file: Anything non-westerners take from westerners is fine. Anything westerners adopt that didn't originate in the west is 'racist'.

The fuck up

Who fucking cares? Shitty fucking 'news' network.

Shut up 🙄

Anything can be anything if you want it to be. American society is at its weakest point ugh!! Come on guys real racism is bad, having a debate about font is a waste of time!!

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if you have to ask ....

Ha ha how ridiculous..so now fonts are racist. Why don't you focus on the antisematic cartoons that are straight out of Elders of Zion before this dribble. The fonts are artistic, fun and create a diverse urban kaleidoscope.

Stop. Just fucking stop. I’m Asian. If you are that sensitive leave the planet for real.

AWWW Cmon ! I still laugh at

I hope not

Cancel it immediately

Pencils are racist too. Notice how they are black on the inside but any color on the outside.

lol wow

We need to change Uncle Ben.. He’s not even my uncle.

Being so woke 24/7 must be exhausting.

How ridiculous is that! Everything is racist and stereotypical. People are sick of that bullshit. Move on to something constructive instead of stirring up made up bullshit

Orientalism

Not racist just distasteful

Okay this is just stupid lol. I'm all for racial equality but seriously, fonts? Y'all are REALLY splitting hairs over this shit now. If there's anyone in this world who gets their ass in a twist over a font, I don't want to know them. This is beyond stupid.

CNN IN ITS ETERNAL SERVICE TO THE LEFT ONLY KNOWS HOW TO CREATE HATE BETWEEN RACES AND RESENTMENTS. THEY ARE A SHAME

Oh, for fucks sake! CNN WTF?

Karate is Indigenous.

*whew* glad it was too difficult to “bling-bling” a font 😅 That could been a hip but overtly racist look for my community

Really! Give me a break, you fucking morons!🙄!!!!

😂🤣😂

First racism take away my Aunt Jemima now this... RACISM?... False shit.

It’s not the font it’s letters. Clearly “I” and “O” show gender bias.

That's an original by those having nothing useful!

Your hurting the movement not helping. We’re on fonts now?

Another Cancel Culture Stupid View I am Cancelling their Oppinion

How can lettering itself be racist?

Never

My mind was scarred just reading the graphics. Bleach! Bleach!

I work at a sign company and we only use the 'rickshaw' type fonts for Chinese restaurants, usually at the request of the customer.

Racism everywhere, how utterly insane we have become to swallow this garbage

Get a real job

Oh FFS Gimme a break

Yes, a font can be racist when it spells out “chink.” Geez, CNN your making a mockery out of something that should be taken more seriously.

This is too stupid for words... Or fonts.

Overkill

No!!!!

f it is the businesses themselves that choose the font. it isn't racist. IMO for advertising purposes if an Asian business chooses an asian font to float their business isn't it up to them? geez

Yes.

Racist cunts won’t mind, I guess. 😐

Yes, America is in danger of ' Racist Fonts ' ..🤣 Oh , The Humanity.. Let's all stand against these despicable ' RACIST FONTS' Thanks CNN for showing your ass AGAIN 😂 !

Everything is racist

You wpuld be a real racist to see something wrong there.

It depends on the colour of the ink 🤪

I apologize because I probably did something racist today without knowing it. Who makes up this grazyness

Great reporting- how’s your latest write up on the border crisis coming?

Just wow.

SMH

For you eveything is rasict! That's what cnn is now.

The fact that this argument exists is killing my braincells one by one

Is it really relavent ?

Ok, dont get me wrong I'm actively against any form of racism or discrimination, but this is plain ludacrious and stupid. Lets ban times new roman because it might offend romans, or arabic numbers because it perpetuates an stereotype (?)

Funny how a lot of Asian food restaurants that are run by Asians use that lettering.

Do they though? Or is this just over-correction?

'Perpetuate problematic stereotypes'....give me a freaking break!

Please don’t take this font away from me

If white companies can't do this, than Asian companies can't either. I cant tell you how many Asian owned and operated businesses use this font on their own logos. That's literally saying, you can't use this font simply because you're white. Not because the font is offensive.

Meh

There are active concentration camps in China. People there are being sterilized because of their race and religion. But yeah let’s focus on how the writing on my won tons hurts people’s feelings.

More of 'The Wimping of America'. How far is this crap going to go? Make everything in America as plain as possible. Let's make everyone the same, no matter what. I was born in America in 1947, but I am mostly British. You going to start calling me 'British American' ? What crap.

That’s ridiculous...

STOP!!!! For the love of god, just fucking stop!!

Cancel culture needs stop. This is going too far. Everything in this article is so biased...

What the truck? Aren't there more important issues than 'rassist fonts'?

Absolutely

*Stares in Mexican restaurant layouts*

All I can say is Holy fuck !! What next . So is cutlery going to be a knife and fork in someone's back ?

I am a cop, police officer, law enforcement and I find this font offensive

Siwwy news ... A fink we hava bigga fish to fwy

“Let’s all just be plain with zero thoughts and no emotions.” Says

I am a bot....I find this font offensive.

'culturally appropriated fonts' 🤣😂 what a joke. Did you get a statistal survey of 1000+ asians to see if this offended them?

What’s going to be cancelled next, black color? 🤦🏽‍♀️

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CNN ‘jumped the shark’ years ago.

I'm not sure which is more racist - the chop suey font(s) or the fact that 'chop suey' passes for Chinese food.

This is why conservatives make fun of you

Are y’all actually this stupid or just messing around ? Genuinely wondering

Someone needs to get a hobby.

This is all becoming like some weird religion.

I have Asian heritage and I don't find it offensive, and I didn't even know it was a 'problem' until this article. There are certain cultural insensitivities that definitely should be addressed, but let's not purposefully look for it in the minutia.

Do you guys cover real news anymore? Actually no need to answer that, your ratings already did...

The N-word in 73 different fonts is considered racist.

What’s next, getting rid of aunt Jemima? Oh, they did that already

Intersting question yes and no. Yes because it may lead to stereotyping and misunderstanding to a culture, in this case far eastern Asian culture. No some claims it's the freedom of expression. It's a complicated and deep topic.

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Can we please tackle more important and pressing issued before we go after fonts? - A lefty

Mo PC L.

It is for sure ugly af

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